Trump's America

[Dave_LF]

The mayor of Dodge City, Kansas has resigned in response to threats from domestic terrorists:
https://www.kwch.com/2020/12/15/i-dont- ... r-resigns/

She is, of course, just one of many officials nationwide who have received such threats.

[N.E. Brigand]

Edit: The White House says that the leader of the neofascist Proud Boys, who posted a picture of himself at the White House today and said that he had been invited there, was only there as part of a public tour and was not invited. So I'm deleting the picture (which had been shared by a number of journalists).

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Also today there were a number of pro-Trump rallies in D.C. whose highlights or lowlights included the recently pardoned retired general Michael Flynn, who told the crowd that Trump's fight to win the presidency goes on despite last night's Supreme Court decision because "the courts don't decide the election: we the people decide." Attendees also heard via video from a retired Catholic archbishop, Carlo Vigano, in which Vigano, who is an Italian citizen, spoke to the crowd about "our homeland" and also said "God bless our president." Plus Alex Jones said that "Joe Biden will be removed, one way or another." And a conservative commentator named Nick Fuentes got the crowd to chant "Destroy the G.O.P.!"

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So bizarre I feel compelled to share it: At one of the pro-Trump rallies in D.C. today, attendees watched a video whose audio was one of Donald Trump's speeches overlaid onto "In the End" by Linkin Park. One reoprt explains: "Just some really stupid trivia about this video: QAnon people love Linkin Park because they believe the lead singer was John Podesta's secret son and was murdered when he tried to confirm Pizzagate." (Linkin Park in July asked the Trump campaign to stop using their music.)

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Late update: the events continued into the evening, and as we have seen so often with rallies and protests this year, things got worse after dark. A Washington Post reporter writes of the Proud Boys tonight that "hundreds of them are roaming D.C., clashing with anti-Trump protesters -- punching, kicking, wrestling. When one fight ends, another begins." Here you can see video of some Proud Boys stealing a Black Lives Matter from the Asbury United Methodist Church and then setting it on fire. And here a confrontation with a lone counter-protester surrounded by a group of Proud Boys turns violent when one of them knocks him on the head and he then stabs one of them.

So regarding the bolded passage above, I may have been too quick to correct myself.

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, shared a picture Saturday on social media of himself visiting the White House that day. Friends of his said he had been invited. I posted the photo here with some comments about how Donald Trump had declined to condemn the Proud Boys during his first debate with Joe Biden. Instead Trump urged the group to "stand back and stand by" -- a phrase the group then adopted as a motto.

But then the White House said that Tarrio was only there as part of a public tour, which anyone can sign up for. So I deleted the photo and most of my comments.

However, Salon reports that you have to sign up for the tour 21 days in advance so that White House security has time to vet potential visitors. People with felony convictions are not permitted to enter "unless a senior member of the administration intervenes." Even former convicts working with the White House on issues like criminal justice reform, even those who have received pardons, have been denied entry in the past.

Tarrio has multiple felony convictions. We don't know why he was admitted. It could just be incompetence. But it can't be dismissed as easily as I thought.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

When you first edited your post, almost said "not so fast." As you say, we don't know what the truth is, and I doubt we ever will, but while incompetence is certainly a likely explanation, I think the preponderance of the evidence is with the other possibility.

[elengil]

At this point a denial by the White House might as well be a confession.

[Dave_LF]

The point has been made that with a malignant sociopath like Trump, Hanlon's razor should be applied in reverse--never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by malice.

[RoseMorninStar]

The point has been made that with a malignant sociopath like Trump, Hanlon's razor should be applied in reverse--never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by malice.

I cannot help but wonder what some of his more moderate supporters/followers think of his behavior. Of course, if they haven't been shaken by his bizarre behavior before, I suppose it's nothing new.. still, his sore loser-ness and acting like a big baby is undignified, to say the least. But I exactly what I expected from a malignant sociopath. I imagine a lot of people thought the same because many began asking him what he'd do if he lost a looong time ago when I believe that's always been a given for previous presidents.

[Frelga]

The point has been made that with a malignant sociopath like Trump, Hanlon's razor should be applied in reverse--never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by malice.

Why not both? You don't have to be smart to be evil.

Always what comes to mind when people claim that someone is not smart enough to make references to Hitler's Germany, as if the Nazis required an IQ test to join.

[RoseMorninStar]

The point has been made that with a malignant sociopath like Trump, Hanlon's razor should be applied in reverse--never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by malice.

Why not both? You don't have to be smart to be evil.

Always what comes to mind when people claim that someone is not smart enough to make references to Hitler's Germany, as if the Nazis required an IQ test to join.

Frelga, I agree.

[N.E. Brigand]

We talked about this possibility before, but CNN today reported that "In his moments of deepest denial, Trump has told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day, only to be walked down from that ledge."

I think it's unlikely to happen, but it might be good for the country for Trump to be exposed for what he really is by being dragged out crying and screaming.

[N.E. Brigand]

The mayor of Dodge City, Kansas has resigned in response to threats from domestic terrorists:
https://www.kwch.com/2020/12/15/i-dont- ... r-resigns/
She is, of course, just one of many officials nationwide who have received such threats.

I saw a Wild West show there when I was kid.

[RoseMorninStar]

The mayor of Dodge City, Kansas has resigned in response to threats from domestic terrorists:
https://www.kwch.com/2020/12/15/i-dont- ... r-resigns/
She is, of course, just one of many officials nationwide who have received such threats.

I saw a Wild West show there when I was kid.

Sounds like not much has changed.

[N.E. Brigand]

"13 Things Trump Got Right" by David Frum (in The Atlantic). Thoughtful and nuanced.

For those who just want the list:
--Stricter Regulation of Vaping
--Dramatic Reductions in the Burning of Coal
--Normalization in the Middle East
--Safeguarding 5G Networks from Chinese Control
--Appointment of Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve Chair
--Destruction of the ISIS Caliphate in Eastern Syria and Northern Iraq
--Speeding Generic Drug Approval
--Tightening Asylum Rules
--Nearly Doubling the Standard Tax Deduction
--Restoring Due Process on Campus
--A Space Force
--Criminal-Justice Reform
--Civic Participation

Frum is a conservative who served in the second Bush administration, but he has been an apostate from Republicans for about ten years and was outspoken against Trump from the beginning. Some of these accomplishments might be viewed by liberals as negative achievements. Some others probably would have been achieved by any president during the past four years. Others were tainted by how Trump achieved them. And the last item on the list (the highest percentage of eligible voters went to the polls in 2020 in over a century) happened because of Trump but also in spite of him.

[Frelga]

The Middle East thing is highly sus, with a high probability of corrupt shenanigans. But as Russians say, poor peace is better than a good quarrel. Ironically, if the relationship normalization pans out, and if Trump really did play a role in that (big ifs), he may have earned that Peace Prize he wanted so much.

Space Force is a joke.

[yovargas]

I really appreciate that list. Even if one disagrees with some of those, it's still a list of things that one can see reasonable people supporting.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Middle East thing is highly sus, with a high probability of corrupt shenanigans. But as Russians say, poor peace is better than a good quarrel. Ironically, if the relationship normalization pans out, and if Trump really did play a role in that (big ifs), he may have earned that Peace Prize he wanted so much.

Space Force is a joke.

It appears that the UAE normalized relations in exchange for the ability to purchase billions of dollars in weapons that will used to bomb in Yemen. And Morroco normalized relations in exchange for the United States abandoning its decades-old requirement that Morocco end its illegal occupation of Western Sahara. The two quos in those quid pro quos, which work to further the immiseration of the Houthis and Sahrawis, respectively, should be sufficient to keep Trump from getting the Nobel.

As for the Space Force, Frum makes an interesting point about how the proposal was already in the works before Trump signed off on it and how, by avoiding duplication of efforts among the other service branches, it could end up saving the country money.

(Edit: That said, the news that members of the Space Force will be called "Guardians" does seem pretty ridiculous.)

But in general I take Frum's point to be that Trump's accomplishments are minor.

[N.E. Brigand]

Trump's former White House chief of staff John Kelly says that many Trump staffers were good people who "kept the train from careening off the tracks."

Kelly's claim would seem to be undermined by the 400,000 Americans who will have died of Covid-19 during the final year of Trump's term in office, of whom about 250,000 would have lived if the United States had just been as competent as Canada.

[RoseMorninStar]

Kelly is likely referring to the time he served. Since he left, there have been a lot more exoduses. I lay a lot of the blame at the feet of McConnell and his fellow republicans who did not hold Trump accountable for anything. The successes further emboldened a departure from the norms.

[N.E. Brigand]

New reporting from the Intercept: The CIA's Afghan Death Squads:

"A CIA-trained Afghan paramilitary unit—working directly with US special opps—conducted 10 raids that killed 51 civilians, carrying out summary executions of boys as young as 8. No one's been held accountable." These raids started in December 2018 and continued until at least December 2019.

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Per other reporting, the White House yesterday was preparing to issue a statement criticizing Russia for the Solar Winds supply chain hack which has compromised numerous companies and U.S. federal agencies. At the last minute, the team working on the statement was told to stand down. And today Donald Trump says he's not sure it was Russia; he says it may have been China, and that they also may have hacked U.S. elections. He also says "everything is well under control." It's not. Experts are still trying to determine the full scale of the hack.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm curious to know whether you consider The Intercept a reliable source.

[N.E. Brigand]

I'm curious to know whether you consider The Intercept a reliable source.

My impression is that The Intercept is biased but honest: the facts reported there are true, but are interpreted in the way that makes the U.S. government, and particularly its national security apparatus, look as bad as possible. Given the power worship that underlies much of the media, The Intercept's approach seem to me to represent a needed balance, but I wouldn't read it in isolation. I think they are better off for the recent resignation of their star writer Glenn Greenwald, who seemed to be singlehandedly trying to prove the Horseshoe Theory. Their biggest mistake was the carelessness by one of their reporters that cost Reality Winner her freedom.

I noted this particular story in part because I have been annoyed by journalism, from all sides, that tries to cast Donald Trump as a peacemaker in contrast with the warlike Barack Obama and his Democratic allies. There was literally a New York Times column in April 2016 titled "Donald the Dove, Hillary the Hawk." One example I have often seen is complaints from the right and left about civilians killed by drone strikes that Obama authorized. I think it's a legitimate concern, although it weird that "drone strikes" seem to be singled out as particularly heinous, as if it wouldn't be so bad if the same people were killed by bombs dropped from manned aircraft. (That said, I know the author of this play about drone stikes that starred Anne Hathaway, and if it's ever staged in your neck of the woods, I recommend it.) But more notably, I have numerous times been told that this shows that Obama was worse than Trump. The truth is that Trump ordered the Pentagon to stop disclosing casualties from drone strikes, so we have no good numbers with which to make comparisons. What this article shows again is that in terms of U.S. military action, there was some continuity between administrations. (This is also evident in U.S. actions against ISIS in 2017, in which plans developed while Obama was president were carried out under Trump.) It notes that, partly at Joe Biden's suggestion, the Obama shifted from a "hearts and minds" strategy (that wasn't working quickly enough in Afghanistan) to a counter-insurgency strategy (which now seems to have worked no better). And Trump apparently continued and expanded on that strategy, with some ghastly results.